Spontaneous abortion‐an infectious aetiology?

Abstract

The role of Chlamydia trachomatis, genital mycoplasmas, Campylobacter spp. and other aerobic and anaerobic bacteria in the etiology of spontaneous abortion was investigated prospectively in 241 pregnant women at a community hospital. Sixteen women who had threatened abortions were a little younger, of lower social class and had had more previous spontaneous abortions than the 76 women who aborted, or the 149 women whose pregnancies were not complicated in the early stages by hemorrhage. The demographic characteristics of the latter 2 groups of women were similar. C. trachomatis was isolated from the cervix of only 1 woman, and she had no genital-tract bleeding at any stage in her pregnancy. Mycoplasma hominis was isolated most often from the women who had threatened abortions; otherwise, the prevalence of the other various micro-organisms was similar in women who had spontaneous abortions, threatened abortions, and in those who had pregnancies uncomplicated by vaginal bleeding. C. trachomatis evidently played no role in the etiology of spontaneous abortion in the population studied. There was no suggestion that any of the other microorganisms were involved either.